HC to hear Majithia’s plea against arrest today

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday fixed July 4 for hearing a petition filed by former minister Bikram Singh Majithia against “illegal arrest and subsequent remand” days after the Vigilance Bureau registered an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The hearing was adjourned for a day to enable his counsel to place before Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya’s Bench fresh remand orders issued in the case. Majithia, among other things, had challenged the initial remand orders after terming it as illegal. His remand on Wednesday was extended by four days.

Among other things, Majithia submitted in his petition that the FIR was a result of “political witch-hunting and vendetta initiated by the present political dispensation with the sole object of maligning and harassing him as he has been a vocal critic and political opponent”. The petition was filed through Sartej Singh Narula, Damanbir Singh Sobti and Arshdeep Singh Cheema.

Majithia submitted that the FIR dated June 25 at the Vigilance Bureau police station in Mohali was “patently illegal” and his arrest the same day from his residence was carried out in “gross violation of settled legal procedures”.

Majithia added he was kept in illegal custody for over two hours prior to his official arrest at 11.20 am as evident from multiple video recordings and the remand order passed the next day. “This custodial detention from 9.00 am to 11.20 am was not only illegal and arbitrary, but also in direct contravention of the constitutional and statutory requirement of producing the arrestee before a magistrate within 24 hours, as enshrined under Article 22(2) of the Constitution and Section 187 of the BNSS,” the petition read.

He said the remand application filed by the investigating agency “lacked concrete or urgent investigative ground and merely relied on broad, speculative allegations such as the petitioner’s alleged influence, foreign connections, and general statements about the need to confront him with documents or digital devices”.

Punjab